At one time I thought MMS and bluetooth modem and similar features were big items for me too and that’s why when I first got the iPhone (primarily to develop apps), I planned on continuing to use a high-end Nokia N-series phone and only use the iPhone as a second/test/development phone. Over time, the rest of the utility of the iPhone overcame these limits (for me) and I ditched the N-series instead (making it the second phone, just for tethering etc., which I now seldom do anymore, and I get by just fine without it).

From a pure phone feature, and my biggest complaint, the Palm Pre does not support “voice to dial.” A feature my “dumb phone” did really, really well. But let us not stop there; my “dumb phone” supported “voice memos” and “video recording;” both are features missing from the Palm Pre.

A step further… I should be able to record my call on a smart phone (was not a feature on my “dumb phone”) but if I could replay the list of things my wife wanted me to pick up at the store, it would save me a lot of pain and suffering (which is why I used the voice memo feature on my dumb phone). But my short term memory problems are not Palm Pre problems… yet…

Limited apps available on the Pre (not a huge issue, they are coming); but there is no legitimate reason, other than how the dollars flow, to hold back on releasing a cornucopia of applications converted from an html/Java based platform to Web OS… And to the the credit of the “Homebrew” team, they have 60-70 apps and growing; but remain a 3rd party and require a bit of tech knowledge that my admin won’t take the time to learn, least anyone else… My fear is, Sprint wants their piece of the pie, thus we will have to wait until the backoffice systems support a billing mechanism; which is sad. I would rather we (Palm Pre owners) have access to purchase from Palm directly or other supported 3rd party biller. I’d rather not have to see it hit my Sprint bill. And just because I understand the business model, does not mean I have to like it.

So, now that I’ve slammed the Pre… here’s what I like about it.
It is slick at Multi-tasking. I do not get interrupted if a call comes in. I don’t lose my place if I take the call. I can ignore the call and keep working on my email (usually to the caller). The interface is easy to navigate. The Sync to the Cloud concept, (Synergy) is also very cool (and by far the best feature of the Palm Pre); and supper cool if you’re a Google user; (my only caution is, clean up your Gmail contact list before adding the account to your Pre). The web browsing is very cool; as the multi-tasking supports opening more than one browser window at a time (but still doesn’t fully support Adobe Flash). I don’t own an iPod; so I don’t know much about the media sync and I don’t really care to know; I loaded all my MP3s without an issue (other than I have poor taste in music); Pandora works so well, I’m considering re-wiring the car to use it as my source of music and drop listening to AM radio altogether… It connects to a PC as a USB drive; and seems to support some of the encryption methods I use on my work PC. And lastly, it’s very “hackable” and with the “sync to the cloud” if I F’it up… I can erase and restore without a problem (except the time it takes to reload my 4 gigs of data/music/movies).

I’m not anti-iPhone or even anti-Apple. I’d love to have a nice Powerbook and iPhone… but it’s my parsimonious life style and limited disposable income that hold me back… Which is why I ended up with the Pre, because Sprint is far cheaper than AT&T and for my area, and the area’s I travel, coverage isn’t an issue. Plus I like that Sprint is “testing” WiMAX. I hope there’s an upgrade path… “winkwink”